today in irrational freakouts: fees for shopping bags

By josh
April 3rd, 2008 @ 12:57 PM media

Not sufficiently infuriated by the Mayor’s proposal to impose a twenty cent “green fee” on disposable shopping bags? [p-i] Perhaps you’ve been abroad and realize that being charged a few more cents at the checkout isn’t the end of the world? Or maybe you also hate getting your food in styrofoam containers already? Just in case you’re feeling incapable of ginning up a nonsensical rant of your own, let’s check in with Michelle Malkin for today’s random freakout:

When last I covered the environmental zealots in my old stomping grounds of Seattle, Mayor Greg Nickels was terrorizing the kids at Christmas time with tales of Santa and the reindeer drowning if they didn’t use compact fluorescent Gore bulbs. What are they up to now? The green cultists are preparing to impose a 20-cent tax on both paper and plastic bags in a bid to force everyone to use those itty-bitty cloth bags that’ll fit a head of organic lettuce and little else. [michellemalkin]

Notice how none of that makes any sense? It goes on (and on, and on) like that in wonderful nonsensical detail. If you get bored with that, the fuming comments section is also worth a read!

The article in the P-I is (unsurprisingly) much more sedate. The only major counterpoint comes from Jenn Young who worries: “If you have a family of six with four kids, and you go shopping once a week and you have 10 grocery bags, that can get to be a lot of money.” By my calculations, this would be a total of two dollars per week, which is probably a whole lot less than most people pay in ATM fees.

3 Comments so far

  1. Shawn (shawn) on April 3rd, 2008 @ 1:49 pm

    Wow, the cloth bags actually hold more than plastic ones, and the handles are more comfortable when loaded down with boxes of wine!

    And really, if you are going to spend $2 per week on the green tax, you might as well buy 10 cloth bags for $.99 each. They pay for themselves after a little over a month! The only problem is you have to remember to put them in the car before you head to the store. I imagine that someone with four kids, remembering reusable grocery bags is pretty low on the priorities list though…


  2. Ryan (ryanhealy) on April 3rd, 2008 @ 1:51 pm

    I had no idea Michelle Malkin used to work for the Seattle Times until she talked about her "old stomping grounds." Here’s her introduction as a columnist from retired Seattle Times editor Mindy Cameron in January of 1996:

    The most intriguing change on these pages happens Feb. 6 with the debut column of a provocative new voice from the right, Michelle Maglalang Malkin.

    Best of all, by spring Malkin will join our editorial writing staff and participate in our daily discussions. She’ll also write some of those unsigned pieces that represent the institutional voice of The Seattle Times.

    At only 25, Malkin is well-prepared for the job. She is finishing up a year as the Warren Brookes Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. For two years prior to that, she was an editorial writer and local columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News.

    Malkin describes herself as a free-market libertarian. There’s plenty she and I don’t agree on. In our conversations she dismissed departing Sen. Nancy Kassebaum as a politician in "the mushy middle." I happen to think pretty highly of Kassebaum and believe the muscular middle or sensible center is the smart place to be.

    Even so, I like the way Malkin thinks and writes. At this early stage of her career, she is already a fine reporter and clear, stylish writer.

    Her articles critical of government failures in environment, affirmative action, education and health-care policy have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times and 35 other newspapers and magazines. Rush Limbaugh liked one Malkin column so much he read it on the air.

    Her first love is writing a local column. I asked her last week what she wanted me to tell her soon-to-be readers. Emphasize my desire to be a successful local columnist, she said. "That’s what I get my high off of."

    Two things to note:

    1. Michelle Malkin likes feeling high.
    2. Michelle Malkin likes to leave her prepositions dangling.


  3. tonyb on April 4th, 2008 @ 12:59 pm

    I wasn’t really sure how to feel about this. All I know is it’s one more damn thing that my wife can ding me on when I go to the store (she’s a vegetarian and I’m a meat eater so I have to shop and cook for myself). I know I will not remember the green bag every time and I can bet you a bunch of single guys and husbands that grocery shop for themselves won’t be able to remember either. So while in theory I love the idea and am all for it, but in terms of my daily life I can see it’s going to be a headache (could be a literal headache depending on how many times I forget and my wife yells at me for it).



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